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4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant Ralph Waybright, 2733 Bradfield Drive, Lincoln, Nebr.

5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you

Ralph Waybright

6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. Living room with south bay window, easy chairs, radio, davenport. Large up to date heating circulator, clean, cozy, seems to have absorbed some of the personality of its now only occupant. Sort of reminiscent of the past. House is full two-story
, square, and was built about forty years ago. It is located in a bend of Wahoo Creek just below the old mill site north of Ashland, [?] mile, in fact it stands on a part of the original homestead of Joseph Stambaugh, first settler of Saunders County. This land has never been sold or transferred from the original grant remaining in the family since 1856, the year Mrs. Waybright's father settled there. Large trees shade the house and a spacious front yard extends to the graveled hi-way. Wahoo Creek bounds this 20 acres on the north and east and its course it marked by the meandering tree line. A barn and several chicken houses, a garden and orchard, with the level farm acres beyond, complete the picture.
C15 - 2/27/41 - Nebraska

0002

FORM B
Personal History of Informant

NAME OF WORKER Harold J. Moss Address 6934 Francis St., Lincoln

DATE February 6, 1939 SUBJECT American Folklore Stuff

NAME AND ADDRESS OF INFORMANT Mrs. Albert Waybright, Ashland, Nebraska

1. Ancestry English-Dutch

2. Place and date of birth Ashland, Nebraska, 1868. Original home of Joseph Stambaugh, father. First settler in Saunders county.

3. Family 2 boys-1 girl all living and married

4. Places lived in, with dates Ashland, Nebraska. Always lived within 300 yards of house she was born in.

8. Community and religious activities Baptist church, usual church work.

9. Description of informant Bright, alert, energetic, quick-moving, all business, comes to the point rather abruptly; of high moral standards.

10. Other points gained in interview Health is excellent, no history of any serious illness. Has outdoor complexion, smooth faced, regular features, medium height, well fleshed and of a markedly independent disposition. Mrs. Waybright has lived alone since the death of her husband in 1930 and operates her 20 acre farm, gardening, milking cows, tending chickens, etc. Prefers this to living with someone. Is sociable but not gregarious.

0003

[Pioneer Remedies?]

FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)

Mrs. Paul used to say they had to kill a man here in order to start a cemetery, people were that healthy. But I think he was killed by a well cave-in. Anyway the folks depended on their own home remedies.

Dog Fennel boiled with lard was used a great deal for sore throat. Elderberry blossom tea was thought to be the best treatment for fever and peppermint, which grew along the [?] was dried and given when anyone got a stomach-ache. People had a dread of being buried alive and a good many times bodies were kept for a week or more just to be sure. People didn't altogether trust doctors to know and some of them didn't have a doctor. [?]

Neighbors were few and far between in the earlier days and people's customs were likely to be what they had been used to where they came from.
Queen Lid

One of our neighbors, who was one of the three first settlers here,[/?] married a woman who afterward was called “Queen Lil.”
(Ashland)

They were trying to get her ousted from the old home place but she wouldn't budge, so they gave her this nickname because the government was having similar trouble at the same time trying to get shut of a queen on some of their islands.

When folks got to building bigger and better houses they would arrange them with parlor and a spare room. The parlor was only used when company come and was kept shut up most of the time with the curtains drawn. Enlarged pictures of relations were [hing?] on the walls and a large fancy covered photograph album was part of the furnishings.

00042

I used to laugh at the story one of the store-keepers used to tell on himself.

He went away on a trip and stopped in a big city where he took a notion to go to church. He picked out a big fine looking one and went in and sat down. Nobody said anything to him but pretty soon a big portly man came in and sat down beside him. After a bit he took out a pencil and paper and wrote on it and handed the note to Mr. Scott. Bill read, “This pew costs me $50.00 a year to sit in.” “Bill” wrote an answer, “I think it's damned cheap at that.”
Pioneer [?]

We used to bake biscuits outside in a heavy skillet with hot coals heaped on the lid.

Thin gravy or squirrel gravy was called “sop.”

People were afraid of tomatoes, and thought they were poisonous for a long time.

Fresh tomatoes fried in ham grease, with toast or bread came to be a delicious dish but many still thought a raw tomatoe would make them sick.

Farmers used to work hard and got along fine.

Then they tried to farm without working. “Gentlemen farmers” we called them. Some even moved to town and hired the work done on the farm.

They were “telephone farmers”. Each new improvement brought with it a little less work and a little harder times. 0005[?]

FORM D

(Supplementary)

How to Live on the Fat of the Land and Water in Nebraska.

Two of the most abundant wild products of Nebraska's fields and streams are the Cottontails or Jack Rabbits, and German Carp fish.

Because of their great numbers and the mass prejudice against them, few people seem to know how really delicious they can be if prepared and cooked properly.

Those who have hunted and fished for years, strange to say, are the very ones who regard these foods with favor.
Glorifying the Lowly Carp.

The German or scalded Carp from the Platte river or other fairly pure streams is the best variety.

This fish should never be skinned or scraped. Rather remove the scales in slabs by cutting under them with a thin sharp blade from the rear. This removes the black bitter scale pockets and leaves the meat a glistening silvery, somewhat irridescent color.

With a sharp knife or razor blade cube all outside surfaces by slashing both ways. Then cut the fish in slabs length-wise, never cross-wise. Some, before doing this, wrap the fish in a dry salt pack of butcher's paper for several hours. Slabs should not be too thick.

To cook, place in hot grease in skillet and
cover with lid and let steam cook thirty minutes. Then remove lid and let brown down to suit. You'll be surprised at the white flaky rolls of tasty meat and at the lack of those little bones, which ordinarily slow up your eating and detract from the pleasure of a fish meal.

00064

FORM D

(Supplementary)
Exalting the despised Rabbit.

Rabbits, both Jacks and Bunnies, are rather numerous in Nebraska. They are very good during the months of November, December, January and part of February.

The new crop is good anytime after they are two-thirds grown from July on. But the rabbit season is associated with winter and snow of course.

A Rabbit should be bled as soon as he is captured and dressed as quickly as possible. This is an easy and quick operation. Just pull the fur off from the back legs to the head, and remove the insides. Contrary to the stories of rabbit fever (tuleremia), there seems to be few cases reported in Nebraska but if you wish, wear rubber gloves when handling.

Ordinarily rabbits are better after a good freezing but this is not absolutely necessary to good edible flavor and texture. After the rabbit is dressed and washed in several cold waters it should be placed in salt water for thirty minutes or so and then hung up to cool if time allows.

For cooking, cut it up much like chicken and place in a stew pan or kettle. Add water and a little soda and salt. Allow to remain on the heat until it begins to simmer.

Then remove, pour off water, rinse once with warm water then add fairly hot water, cover with lid and let it cook. The time it should cook and stew depends of course on the age and size. Jack rabbits one hour to two hours. Bunnies about an hour average. Care should be taken that the meat does not become overdone and shred away from the bone. It should be 00075
timed so that most if the water will have boiled away.

Frying brown to suit is simple. Add a little bacon if you wish and place entire contents of kettle in skillet with hot lard.

If you do it this way and do not say that this was a revelation in the way of meat, then you just have a fixation that no rabbit can ever be good.

Woodsmen call limbs, which have broken off and are hanging by a twig or shred, “widow makers.”

A “Flitch” of Bacon was a portion of a side. A “Rasher” of Bacon is a slice for frying. These terms were used by the early settlers in Nebraska. Mrs. Martha Graham of Sarpy county referred to bacon as such about 1852 to 1860.

Cold water was used for fevers. Hot water for pains and chills.

People dying of small pox were sometimes buried at night with no procession or services.

Nebraska Farmers will remember the “Go-Devil”. It was a sort of drag to level down clods and pulverise the soil. “Alligator” wrenches are not much in evidence today though every tool chest and farm in Nebraska used to have one.
[Pioneer Hooks?]

Small unsophisticated boys and gullible adults were often sent on “round robin” tours or “Wild goose chases” for “meat augurs,” “sky hooks,” “water [daws?]” and “round squares.”

The hoax was perpetrated by one of the several village practical jokesters and often was furthered by conniving conspirators, who were in the “know.”